Now I do have an AMD CPU (TBird 800) which some people have alluded to as being the culprit.

More likely, it's a problem with the USB drivers for that motherboard. That's my guess. You might want to check the website of the motherboard manufacturer and see if they have updated USB drivers.

The fact that you've got one computer which works fine (your work machine), and another computer which does not, seems to support this theory.